Apple’s new keyboard protects from OVERZEALOUS TYPISTS

Hit the caps lock key unintentionally all the time? The new Apple keyboard …

I would like to see a study regarding the misuse of the caps lock key and the percentage of time that the caps lock is mistakenly activated. I'm not sure what the data would show, but despite this apparently Apple is trying to stop any accidental caps lock activators in their tracks. Jonathan "Wolf" Rentzsch of Red Shed fame has unearthed a new "feature" added to Apple's new wired keyboard:

Unique among the rest of the keys, Caps Lock doesn’t activate immediately upon strike. There’s a very small time window — perhaps a quarter of a second — where if you release the key inside the window, the keystroke is ignored.

Rentzsch continues to point out that the slow activation of the caps lock key does not carry over to deactivation, which is instantaneous. After watching the video, the difference is almost non-perceivable and shouldn't be a problem for most who legitimately make use of the caps lock key.

Who it should effect are those less-than-perfect typists who occasionally overshoot the shift key and accidentally activate the caps lock key, leading to excessive command + z use (if they're paying attention, that is). We have not yet heard reports of this new functionality extending to the wireless version of the new keyboard.

Those of you who never make use of the caps lock key can just go ahead and disable its functionality altogether via the OS X System Preferences. Merely go to the System Preferences, select "Keyboard & Mouse" from the hardware section, then select "Modifier Keys" in the Keyboard section of the window.

It is then as easy as changing Caps Lock to "No Modifier" and you won't have to worry about that pesky key ever again.